In Every Step Is Moving Me Up, Sysiak explores the ambivalence of emotions and experiences shared by artists—particularly at the beginning of their creative journey, though they persist throughout a career. He draws attention to feelings that everyone experiences but few admit, symbolized here by the logos of renowned galleries and museums. By exposing these hidden anxieties, Sysiak deliberately weakens the heroic image of the artist and enters the terrain of shame and failure.

Unfulfilled dreams are embodied in the image of the Questra ball from the 1994 World Cup—a reference to Sysiak’s own abandoned football career. Yet the installation also contains notes of hopeful idealism: the ‘totemic’ paintbrush thrust into the sheet of paper and the signs of a (somewhat naive) belief in art and the persona of the artist.